sugarpie, honeybunch

When I was growing up, my dad always wanted pie, specifically razzleberry pie, for his birthday. Not cake, not cupcakes….pie.

I could never understand it. You were supposed to have cake on your birthday, my bratty little teen self would think, didn’t everyone know that? I didn’t want pie. I wanted cake.

Sometimes he would humor me and I’d bake a cake….but there would be pie, too.

This year as my birthday drew round, I promptly thought about going to my old favorite of strawberry cake. For some reason, I just couldn’t get excited about it. Carrot cake? Nah. Chocolate cupcakes? Pass.

And suddenly, out of nowhere,  I realized that what I really wanted was (gasp) pie.

It could be due to the fact that we’ve been getting rhubarb in our CSA box lately and I have made not less than one pie a week.

It could be due to the fact that I didn’t want to deal with all the inherent pitfalls of frosting (eating gobs of it while whipping it up, accidentally flinging it to random corners of the kitchen, eating more gobs of it, taking a million pictures of it because ‘Oh, how pretty!’, eating more gobs until you realize there’s not enough left to frost the cake. I rest my case.)

Or, it could be due to the fact that after all, I’m Daddy’s girl.

This pie is rustic – which to me means it’s not pretentious. You don’t have to hold its hand and place it in the fridge for umpteen hours. You don’t have to cut delicate little strips to make a lattice (though if you’d like to, by all means, go ahead.) You don’t even have to use a rolling pin if you don’t want to.

It’s simple. It’s tasty. And my dad really likes it 🙂

 

Simple Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

Materials

Filling

• 1 pound strawberries, stems removed
• 1 bunch rhubarb (~7-9 stems), stems trimmed
• 3/4 cup raw sugar
• 1/3 cup AP flour
• optional for those who don’t have much of a sweet tooth:                         1/4 teaspoon salt + dash of lime or lemon juice

Simple spelt Crust

• 1.5 cups spelt flour  x 2
• 1/3 cup oil   x 2
• 1/4 cup water (+ 2 tablespoons if needed)    x 2
• 1/2 teaspoon salt   x 2

The dough will be prepared twice, once for the bottom crust and once for the top crust. I find it easier to work with this way instead of mixing it all together at once. But, hey – if it works for you, go right ahead

Methods

1. Cut strawberries into halves or quarters, depending on size. Cut rhubarb into ~3/4 inch pieces. Combine strawberries and rhubarb with sugar and flour and set aside.

2. Prepare pie dough for bottom crust: whisk oil, water and salt together. Sift in flour and mix until evenly moistened.3. Press dough into pie plate.

4. Repeat step 2 for pie dough for top crust. Using fingers or rolling pin, work dough into round sheet. No need to get finicky here; just make a flat circle.

5. Pour filling into dough-lined pie plate then place flattened dough on top. Using fingers, cinch around the edges.

6. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes, until slightly golden on top. (If you’d like a more golden look, brush a little soymilk on in the last 5 minutes of cooking).

7. Plate up: serve a slice fresh from the oven in all its juicy glory or refrigerate for a few hours for a firmer slice.

Results & Conclusions

This pie is sweet but not too sweet.

Flaky but not too flaky.

Delicious but not too….wait, is there even such a thing as too delicious? If so, this pie is pretty darn close to that.

Bonus points if your slice completely falls apart, forming a delicious pile of fruity goodness.

(TOP SECRET CONFIDENTIAL TIP: the juicy sauce that pools in the pie plate whenever you remove a slice is the absolute best. Make sure no one else learns of this so that you can hoard it for yourself.)

This pie is just as awesome the next day, so for those of you who hide it in the back of the fridge away from prying forks, you’ll be handsomely rewarded.

As Montgomery Burns would say (while tapping his bony little fingers together), “Exxxxcellent.”